Selfish Sunday Knitters

Don't apologize ~ KNIT FOR YOURSELF! Join us in Selfish Sunday Knitting and join this blog to share your projects, cheers, tears, tips and tricks. I'm Leah, and I'm your hostess, sitting on the couch each and every Sunday with my cuppa joe and knitting for ME!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Well it's early here yet to be completing my knitting for the day, but I wanted to post up the current progress. I'll definately knit more later today but I'm very excited to post a picture of the back of the sweater. (Sorry for the poor quality.) YES! The back is DONE! lol Now I get to start on the front with pockets....er...um....new territory. Hopefully each piece from here on out will be a bit quicker as they are smaller. I'm anxious to wear my new sweater. hehehe.

We decided to take today and do only the necessary things....all else could wait. So there has been much knitting and there will be more fiber play after I'm done posting. It started snowing here today so it's great weather for spinning and knitting! I decided to post here first today, but if you're interested in seeing how my silk/merino dyeing experiment went on Wednesday, check out my main blog. I'm posting pics in a few minutes.

I hope everyone's holiday went great and that the left overs aren't killing anyone! ;)

Hi there,My name is Cheryl and this is my first post on Selfish Sunday Knitters. I have been working on Fiber Trends Felted Clogs for all the ladies in my family for Christmas. This particular pair is made from Knit Picks wool and fun fur. I have 5 pairs done and still one more to go. I guess there won't be any Sunday Selfish Knitting for me today! Maybe after Christmas.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Meathead Hat

Here's the photo of my Meathead Hat, as promised. I am loving this pattern! The hat knits up in just a couple of hours on size 15s with super-bulky wool (in this case, Rowan Big Wool). I just finished a second Meathead out of Lamb's Pride Bulky (doubled) as a Christmas gift for a friend's stepdaughter -- what fun!

Can we post selfish knitting done on other days. I have found my Sundays very busy lately so my selfish knitting seems to take place on week nights. One Monday night I finishes my favorite project. The Pure and Simple Afghan. I spent 9 months (including the summer months I didn't work on it because of the heat) and loved every minute of knitting it. I used Lamb's Pride Bulky and this afghan is mine all mine. Or so I thought but it seems Smokey has another idea.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

There's been plenty going on this week, but for some reason it feels like it's all been in the kitchen. I guess it's just that time of year. DH and I are on a diet and it feels like all I ever do is think about food. What to buy, how to cook it and how it's going to effect the waist line. So far all is good. To reward myself Sunday I spent a HUGE amount of time knitting. I'm not knitting any pressies for anyone who does not read this blog this year so there is a lot of Selfish Sunday Knitting going on at my house. (lucky for me!!!) It felt like it was taking forever but......I give you this....This is the most current picture of 15 inches of sweater back. (Ok, I realize most of you have knitted far larger items...lol...this is a first for me and I'm totally amazed with each step that gets completed. The whole "I did that?" thought kicks in and I have to giggle. This is the largest project I've EVER knitted. lol I'm sure I'll get overmyself soon.) I had to take a pic before starting the arm hole shaping cause you know, all heck could break lose and this could end up in the frog pond. I will confess to not using lifelines at this time and triple counting everything before beginning a new row. Not that I'm paranoid...but really....this is the largest item I've knitted so far and I don't want to screw it up! (BTW...I've only had to tink back one row....the first decrease row as I didn't decrease enough lol.) I did start the armhole shaping and am truely nervous about this. I really don't want to screw this up and keep reading the pattern thinking..."This is much to easy to be true."lol ( Paranioa....will destroy ya.. ...lol. sorry...rebel rocker days kicking in.) I keep telling myself that this is the largest piece to be knitted for this sweater. I could be wrong...the hood may be technically larger...but still...the front panels and sleeves have got to be narrower! Right now I can't put it down. That's really good because I couldn't pick it up all week. I just had other stuff on my mind. lol.

I've since started the armhole shaping which for some reason excites me as it feels like I'm "really knitting a sweater" for some reason. Did I mention I've never knitted a sweater? lol I'm a doof! I can't help myself from already thinking about casting on for the next piece. I guess that's good because I'd really like this sweater done this winter! lol If I can keep up at this rate I'll be able to meet the goal. (I'm not holding my breath though I've got a lap afghan (crochete) that is currently 3 years old and only 1/4 done.)

Well, it's time for me to get offline and make my "to-do" list for tomorrow. I'm lucky enough to have tomorrow off and need to use it wisely for Thanksgiving day prep. Therefore, I'm making a list of stuff to get done tomorrow. I'm also lucky enough to only have two other people that I'm cooking for and our diets all work together and .......neither care if I clean the house! Gotta love that in a guest! So, I do believe I'll make the extra effort to actually clean the house tomorrow. ;)

OK...I'm giving in. I'm going to allow my SSKrs to post their Christmas knitting projects if that's all they have to share at the moment. Obviously, we can't escape knitting UNselfishly for the holidays (and we shouldn't!!) so instead of this blog being dead quiet, let's see whatcha got on the needles and what you finished so far! And let's hope you *do* have time for some SSK and share that too!

I've been working on some SSK though ladies...mostly when I can't work on certain Christmas gifts cuz Certain People are around :)

I'm doing the ONE LEGGED SOCK KNITTER FO DANCE !

Of course, this wasn't a totally selfish act. The sock had been languishing on the needles that I needed to get busy on a pair of Christmas sox so I *had* to break down and kitchener that toe. And the sock turned out to be just like I'd hoped...the yarn bloomed, the sock fit and looks pretty and I'm motivated to do another that will probably take me until June of next year if I start it directly after Christmas. If you dig this pattern and wanna try it too, here's the LINK for the free pattern again. It isn't hard really but I was using a double strand of some pretty fine yarn and size 1 needles for the entire thing so it took me awhile. It's a 12 row repeat and I could only handle about 12 rows at a sit down so I moseyed my way through it at a pretty leisurely pace.

I haven't been knitting on the funky scarf vest BUT I did weigh the yarn after I finished the first half of the front and I DO have enough to finish and can maybe even squeeze out the collar aswell. Whew!

I have been managing to get a few rows in here and there on the Sheep Shawl...up to row 92 baby!

This thing is HARD. hard hard hard hard. HARD. Not Easy. Of course, I'm not a High Priestess of Lace Knitting either...just a lowly novice, really....maybe just into the intermediate range of skill. But this is epic knitting, I tell you! EPIC. A True Accomplishment for any knitter. Wow...look at me go with all this lace...lace socks, lace shawl, lace washcloths. I do love me some chunky easy knitting, really I do! I'm just wondering when the heck I became this crazy lace knitting woman?

I just got the Mason Dixon knitting book into the shop the other day (yeah, I know...I'm way late for this bandwagon but it was backordered for like a thousand years!) and I MUST MAKE THE NIGHTIE. I want that nightie in there! I. WANT. IT. BAD. And I think there's some lace in there somewhere...sigh....

Well, that's enough about me for now...if you want to read other stuff I'm up to (like the lace washcloth and spinning stuff, etc) check out my other blog :) The first bit is about The Sock but there's other stuff if you scroll on down!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

No Post Is...Er, No Post

Well, the good news is I've been knitting up a storm, bum finger be damned (and yes, I do realize that I may live to regret this). The bad news is none of the knitting has been for me. Although, it's not ALL that bad a bit of news seeing as how it's the holidays and all...do unto others and all that.

So, even though my knitting of late has been more Selfless than Selfish, I still wanted to check and say "hi" to all my fellow SSKers -- I miss you all! And don't worry, I have plenty of plans for selfish knitting just as soon as the holidays are over.

OH! And I almost forgot. I accidentally knitted something for myself tonight. That's right, accidentally. I joined the Meathead Hat KAL (now, sadly, closed), which has a deadline of the end of this month, so I figured since my size 15s were newly freed up and I had a whole movie's worth of knitting I could do tonight, I might as well try to do the hat sooner rather than later. Once it was finished and I tried it on, I knew that despite my initial thoughts of using it as a Christmas present, nobody but me would be wearing that hat. I don't have any good photos yet, but I'm going to try and take some tomorrow and then I'll post them here.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

EARLY HOLIDAY GIFT FOR MY SS KNITTERS!

I finally finished my Nature's Way Fibonacci Wrap, which is for sale in my shop and on my website soon but I'm going to give a copy to my SSK Team! The only requirement for receiving the shawl pattern is that you must have posted to the blog at least once with pictures :) That's it! Email me if you want a copy and I'll send the PDF file to you. If you haven't posted yet, this is a good incentive to get busy and post with a photo! It's super easy and I designed it especially for handspun but you can use any yarn. There are a bunch of tips for changing the wrap in the pattern as well. You can actually knit this up in a weekend, no lie!

This one is my very own shawl which I haven't worn yet because it's a pita to get back on the stupid mannequin at the shop. It's not hard to get on ME (or your body) but for some reason pinning it exactly that way on the stiff mannequin is not so easy. You can wear this thing a bunch of ways...one really cute way is to pin it evenly in the front so it looks like a vest...cute!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

I have a sneaking suspicion that Christmas knitting is kicking our collective SSK butts! I know it's kicking MINE...between huge Christmas knitting guilt, procrastination and general blissful optimism I'm screwed. Ha! Is there a special Christmas knitting project for me in the cards? Hmmm... that sounds like a wonderful idea, dontcha think? I challenge each and every one of you to start (or finish!) something really special for YOURSELF in time to wear on Christmas morning. You can do it! C'mon...how much difference is that hour of SSK knitting going to make in your Christmas Knit List? Hmmm? You figure that you have 6 hours for a SSK projectif you spend on hour each Sunday knitting for you. You're worth it. We all are!

Cleaves is no more...sigh. Cool thing but knitting it out of my first "real" spindle spun handspun was not practical or good....while I have quite a bit of yardage, the stuff was way different in size from ball to ball. Soooo...I decided to try this funky scarf vest from the Fall 2006 issue of Knit 1 and it seems to be working out OK but I'm knitting on the edge, not sure if I have enough yardage. I guess I'll finish the first front panel and then weigh the thing then weigh the remaining yarn and pray that I'm not ripping and starting over with something else that's totally boring since I'm exhausted dealing with this yarn. Actually, anything knit from it won't be boring...it's crazy stuff!

Yep, it's striping but I already knew that. Didn't expect it when I was first knitting with it but there it is. I "solved" the different size problem (bulky to light-worsted-almost-sport-weight) by knitting the back with the bulky stuff since I had 2 balls of the lighter stuff and thought the drape would be better for the front panels. So there's the back...short but it's supposed to be. It's like 8 inches. Hope it doesn't make me look like a line-backer. Sigh...

Woooeee.....lookit those stripes! Ha! Here's the front panel with the pathetically small amount of yarn left in that ball. I'm almost at the 20 inches to complete the straight part and then will start decreasing for the armhole. This thing is supposed to have a collar, which I may have to forego if I'm lucky enough to have enough for both panels. I *could* make it shorter than it calls for but what fun is that? I'm sure it will be because when I measure it, I stretch the heck out of it to make myself feel a little better.

This is really mindless knitting though, it's the garter slip ridge stitch (totally wrong name for it, I know!) Very very easy and pretty fun to knit though. No thinking there folks!

I have more SSK adventures to share...well, ONE...that Sheep Shawl wherein I had a close call with disaster and saved myself some serious heartache by actually inserting a lifeline...imagine that! I went by the book...sort of. I don't see the point inserting lifelines before you need them though. I mean, why not just insert them after a disaster instead of wasting time doing them when you don't need them? Hmmm? Anyone else with me on this? Or is my rebel nature just blissfully unaware of something? I tinked, had disaster with the *&%^ sk2p (slip one, k2tog, pass slip stitch over)...who the hell can tink that in laceweight Zephyr I ask you? So, I went down to a nice safe area of many garter stitch rows and used a darning needle and some waste yarn to pick up the purl bumps then ripped back, holding my breath and it WORKED. Beautifully. Whew. I'll post some pics of the process later...I'm going to be late for work if I keep blabbing here.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Hello to all you SSK'ers! I'm new to the neighborhood and I joined up becase I often forget to knit for myself.

My name s Lisa and I live in central Arkansas with my husband and sons. I knit alot for other people--family mostly, but occasionally I manage something just for me. Right now OTN is a two tone sweater from the book The Purl Experience. If you haven't seen that particular book, it is definately worth a look. There are three books in the set and all of them are great. I can't remember which, but one of these books has the famous "Einstein Coat" pattern.

Today I knit my oldest granddaughter a toboggan. Poor sweetheart didn't have one so Mimi(I) just had to fix her up. I loosely followed a basic hat pattern, but did alot of custom work so the hat came out very customized and totally CUTE! She'll love it!

I am also a spinner and have always got a conflict going inside my head about should I spin tonight, or knit?? Right now since I'm working on my sweater, I haven't even touched my wheel in weeks. I have tons of raw fleece to work up so I really NEED to get busy washing and carding. Just yesterday, I got a huge box of fleece in the mail to add to my chore list. This newest fleece is just beautiful, so it won't take alot of work to prepare. I just need more hours in my day.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Here is a progress picture of the Hooded Sweater I am currently knitting. I picked up a circular needle today at the craft store and transferred the knitting over to that. It has made a world of difference! Not only am I knitting a bit faster, but the weight of the yarn is not hanging on my wrists so I'm able to knit for longer periods of time. I have only been able to work on this for an hour so far today, but I'll knit some before bed. I don't have any other projects on the needles, hooks or beadbox right now, so any craft time I take during the week is split between the spinning and the sweater. Mostly this week it has been spinning as the knitting was slow and painful. Now that I have it on a circular, I'm hoping to make better progress.

With the cooler weather this week (rain, rain, rain Oh yeah, it's Washington....that's normal!) I've been able to wear my handknit socks to work. It's a first and was wonderful. My feet didn't hurt a 10th of what they normally do. (I normally wear cotton socks that are fairly thin.) I'm planning on spinning some "sock yarn" to knit into socks for myself but I think I'm going to have to pick up a skein so that I can have an actual "sock yarn" to use for gauge. As much as I love to read, I'm a visual person and need to see it to understand it fully in matters such as these. Hopefully I'll be able to knit a new sock soon. ;) ( The previous socks I've knitted were made from larger yarn.)

This post is cut from another posted at my main blog. I try to keep only the rest of my posts from spilling over. If you're interested in checking out what I'm up to, come on over! http://crafterscupboard.blogspot.com/